Unicode

To enter a single character for which the Unicode code point is known but which is not available in the editor being used, use either \char ##xhhhh or \char #dddd within a \markup block, where hhhh is the hexadecimal code for the character required and dddd is the corresponding decimal value. Leading zeroes may be omitted, but it is usual to specify all four characters in the hexadecimal representation. (Note that the UTF-8 encoding of the code point should not be used after \char, as UTF-8 encodings contain extra bits indicating the number of octets.) Unicode code charts and a character name index giving the code point in hexadecimal for any character can be found on the Unicode Consortium website, https://www.unicode.org/.

For example, \char ##x03BE and \char #958 would both enter the Unicode U+03BE character, which has the Unicode name “Greek Small Letter Xi”.

Any Unicode code point may be entered in this way and if all special characters are entered in this format it is not necessary to save the input file in UTF-8 format. Of course, a font containing all such encoded characters must be installed and available to LilyPond.

The following example shows Unicode hexadecimal values being entered in four places – in a text mark, as articulation text, in lyrics and as stand-alone text below the score:

\score {
  \relative {
    c''1
    \textMark \markup { \char ##x03A8 }
    c1_\markup { \tiny { \char ##x03B1 " to " \char ##x03C9 } }
  }
  \addlyrics { O \markup { \concat { Ph \char ##x0153 be! } } }
}
\markup { "Copyright 2008--2023" \char ##x00A9 }

To enter the copyright sign in the copyright notice use:

\header {
  copyright = \markup { \char ##x00A9 "2008" }
}

<< Back to Documentation Index

LilyPond Notation Reference v2.25.14 (development-branch).